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148 13 Exploring Scenic Iraq From Arbil to the Iranian frontier five mountain ranges must be crossed. When we had reached the top of the first range, we could discern lying before us, as far as the eye could reach, range after range of mountains, each rising higher and higher in the distance. Some of the peaks toward the distant north were , feet high. The view across these ranges resembled very much a scene I recalled when, years ago, I stood on the first ridge of the South Lebanon Mountains and looked across the country of the Druses. There I saw ridge behind ridge, each rising above the other in a grand ascent. These ridges with the setting of the sun were gloriously sunset-flushed. It was not God’s rose of dawn but His rose of sunset that, seeing on the mountains of Lebanon, I shall never forget. Our first objective was the Rawanduz Gorge. It took four years to build this road from Shaqlawa to the Iranian border, with sometimes as many as a thousand men working on it. To build it was an engineering feat, for the road passed through mountains where road building had never before been attempted by any of the civilizations, ancient or modern, the reason being the technical difficulties and the intractable character of the inhabitants. In these mountain fastnesses lived a people who loved their freedom and isolation and who were fearful and jealous of any intrusion. To reach this gorge which someone has called, exaggerated no doubt, the finest in Asia, we had to traverse the celebrated Spilik pass. Only over this pass where there is a drop considerably below the height of the mountain could merchant traffic find a way. Here is where the robbers of a famous brigand band had their dens. These brigands called their lawless profession of robbing a trade of kindness and mercy. They declared that by lessening the amount of merchandise carried by horses or donkeys or Exploring Scenic Iraq • 149 camels, their burden was eased because the amount was reduced, a queer kind of a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals. From this robber stronghold we began to wind down to the famous gorge. The gorge matched its most lavish praise. Great cliffs towered and beetled above us, rising to a height of many hundred feet. The foaming stream rushed noisily around the great boulders that obstructed its way. Torrents even poured out of the precipitous mountainside. A rushing stream dropped in a great waterfall to join the main stream.Deeply cut gullies and a complex system of gorges met the main canyon.We crossed and recrossed the river on strong bridges, which were built to harmonize with the scenery. Stopping repeatedly along the way, we stepped down to the churning stream to dip our hands in the icy water.We ate our lunch under an overhanging cliff where the road had been“half tunneled through.” When the engineers first surveyed the road, they had to crawl around this corner on their hands and knees with a sharp fall of eighty feet to the river. Drops of water were falling from the overhanging cliff through which the road was cut. Maidenhair ferns and mosses decorated the ceiling of the road, and at one place a delicate vine had grown out of a hole and hung suspended under the cliff. The road continually winds and is often just wide enough for an automobile. I wondered what on earth would happen if, turning a curve, we would suddenly meet a car coming the other way. We were told that earlier in the summer an American touring this gorge had almost had the alternative either to be smashed by a truck or to dash over the precipice. We met trucks too, but fortunately where the road was wide enough for passing. Having traversed this gorge, we could say of both nature and man’s work here, “How mightily God and man have wrought.” We emerged on an open plain, across which we had to pass to get to the Beserini Gorge. But before reaching it, we came to the much-talked-of town of Rawanduz. The town is perched on a hill. Trying to drive up the steep incline, but finding it rather dangerous to make the sharp turns on the zigzag road, we wisely halted at a place where it was possible to turn around. Then, walking to the summit of...

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